FLORISSANT, Mo. – Two pieces of paper—which the Missouri Office of Notaries and Commissions says were forged—cost an entire family their home.

Bryan Anderson alerted us to the case after seeing this week’s FOX Files investigation into stolen homes. He recognized one of the suspects and reflected back on when his family home was taken.

“I returned back to my mother’s house of some squatters that was remaining in her home,” Anderson said.

His mother died in 2018, leaving her home on Jerries Lane near Parker Road in Florissant. Anderson said someone filed a quitclaim deed two years later, claiming Anderson’s mother, from the grave, had just signed the home over to them.

“The same people tried to sell me back her home and had the audacity to tell me, ‘Hey, man we’ve been looking for you,’” Anderson said.

That audacious person was James Townes, a man now charged by the St. Louis County Prosecutor with stealing homes. Court records allege Townes is "causing havoc in the community" while "forging hundreds of papers with the recorder of deeds."

“One of the problems with property fraud is it’s quiet, for a long period of time,” St. Louis County’s Recorder of Deeds Gerald Smith said.

Smith showed how signing up for an online fraud alert will get you an instant warning about a possible scammer.

“That will potentially help the victim reach out sooner,” he said.

Lt. Mark Brown, North County Police Cooperative, has investigated cases like this.

“The legal expense it takes to fight a case like that is overwhelming, so a lot of times people just bear the brunt and lose the property,” he said.

Which is what Bryan Anderson said happened to him. His family home foreclosed while he was trying to get it back from the alleged house thieves.